The Land of Shattered Dreams
by Bore Ragnarok
Summary: When a notorious mercenary and a troubled Jedi meet during the Battle of Geonosis, neither really realizes that the conflict in the galaxy is only going to get worse. These are their adventures through the galaxy in this troubling time as an unlikely friendship starts between two enemies, each with dark secrets and lies that threaten their newly formed bond.
1. Chapter 1

Blaster bolts whizzed by Tre Nulo's head as he stood on the top ring of the Geonosian arena. Reinforcements had arrived for the republic and he smiled dryly at the realization that his contract with the Confederacy of Independent Systems had just reached it's end.

The man slowly pulled up the hood of his robes and smirked as he stepped back into the shadows of a tunnel that led deep into the Geonosian hive. He knew the tunnels well after working in this hellhole for months as quiet guard to exterminate the threats that mere droids could not, and felt a rush of adrenaline at the sounds of battle behind him. He'd left just as the first LAAT had landed, a stroke of good luck on his part as moments thereafter he probably would have been beheaded by Dooku.

Such was the life of a mercenary. Tre had worked for both sides leading up to this point as an assassin or a bounty hunter, eliminating several of the Separatists' key masterminds and three Jedi. He worked all his jobs under the guise of another, recently deceased, bounty hunter, and changed his fake identity regularly so nobody knew who he really was. Tre Nulo was a nobody, a farmer from a planet in the outer rim that few knew existed and even fewer cared anything about.

Tre pulled out his blaster pistol, a sturdy, slightly modified K-16 and silently cursed himself for not bringing more firepower. He had a gut feeling that something was going to go wrong, and yet he ignored it. It didn't really matter to him, stealth was his primary objective anyway.

The tunnels he ran through were mainly empty, usually emergency exits or maintenance shafts as he approached the hangar where his ship was kept. He darted quickly, making as little noise as possible as he looked around for Jedi or Geonosians who would not approve of his presence. After five minutes of stealthy running he came across the door to the hangar. One of his fingers hovered just above the trigger to the blaster as he tensely opened the door.

Nothing. Silence was the only thing that met him as he swerved into the cavernous room, the dim lights barely illuminating the walls. Explosions could be heard resounding from the outside and every time another sounded the walls shook and dust spilled down from the ceiling. Fortunately for Tre, the mouth of the hangar did not face the battle, and such there was no one in sight.

He quietly slipped off to his ship, a ship so heavily modified that Tre himself couldn't remember what it was originally. It was aptly named _Sorrow's End_, as all who fought it had their sorrows, or lives if you were being less poetic, ended. _Sorrow's End_ was a light transport ship that bore a striking resemblance to a starfighter and carried with it enough firepower to live out a siege for months. Tre had just boarded when he heard voices coming from outside, a sound that froze him in his tracks.

"Quickly! We need to hurry if we want to catch the bugs unaware!" came a voice from the opening of the hangar. Tre squatted down, glancing around nervously to see who had interrupted his escape. It was a Twi'lek surrounded by a squad of what appeared to be humans wearing hard white armor. All of them held blasters except for the Twi'lek, who wore the telltale robes of a Jedi and carried with her an unignited lightsaber.

Tre had no quarrel with them, though he did wish that the soldiers of the Republic would just hurry up so that he could leave. If they found him it would be really hard to explain why a human in his late twenties and armed with enough weapons to destroy a small army would be here on Geonosis at the sight of a Separatist base."Come on... Just eave already..." he muttered.

There was a moment when the soldiers walked right past _Sorrow's End_ and Tre tightened his grip on the blaster, but they quickly passed without so much as a second glance. Tre let out a breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding and rested the back of his head on the control panel behind him, accidentally activating the ship's external lights.

"Crap!" he whispered loudly and shut off the lights with as much speed as he could, but the damage had already been done. The soldiers cautiously surrounded the ship, blasters out and ready to fire. The Jedi motioned to two of the soldiers and ordered in a cautious tone, "You two come with me, the rest of you watch the outside to make sure nobody leaves"

Tre groaned and opened up a small hatch that led into the ship's wiring system before closing it back up and readying his blaster. At least he had the element of surprise. He could hear the soldiers and Jedi enter the ship and begin to search. Tre took solace in the fact that they wouldn't find anything incriminating, he never took trophies or kept records of any kind onboard. The most offensive thing he had was some explicit music files.

The soldiers continued their search, uncovering his cache of weapons and personal belongings, but he could tell from the tone of their voices that they were still very suspicious. They sere making their last rounds of the ship when they passed the hatch behind which Tre was hiding, their footsteps echoing down the hallway. Suddenly one set of footsteps stopped and soon the other two had as well. Tre could hear faint whispers coming from outside, but couldn't discern what they were saying.

The hatch clicked and Tre fumbled with his blaster and dropped it out of surprise. 'And I'm supposed to be a professional' he thought as the hatch was opened.

"Exit the compartment immediately and provide identification" said one of the soldiers in armor, pointing his blaster at Tre. Tre grunted and pulled himself out of the crawlspace and remembered at the last second to at least act nervous. He pulled out a datapad he had attached to his belt and pulled up one of his fake identities on it. "Here you go" he said in a nervous voice, "That's my information".

The soldiers looked it over, and passed the datapad to the Jedi. She looked through it for a couple of seconds before handing it back to the troopers. "You know your stuff." she said in a cold tone, "This nearly fooled me, I'll give you that, but you're mind says otherwise".

"Jedi can't read minds" Tre responded, dropping the fake nervousness. To him there was no point, he could take them anyway.

In one fluid motion Tre grabbed one of the soldiers' guns and rammed it into the Jedi's face, sending her sprawling. He fired twice into the chest of the trooper who was still armed, leaving smoking holes in the white armor. The second soldier jumped and landed on his back while Tre was momentarily distracted and Tre struggled to shake him off. He stumbled around as the soldier's arm closed around his throat and he felt himself growing dizzy, but he fought through it and slammed his back into a wall, causing the trooper to lose his grip.

Tre turned around and shot the man in the face before turning back to where the Jedi now faced him, her green lightsaber mere inches from his face. He could hear the hum of the deadly weapon and feel it's heat against his skin, though he still stood, unafraid.

"By the order of the republic, I command you to drop the weapon and identify yourself!" the Jedi spoke with authority, anger clear in her voice. She wanted to kill him, but her code made it impossible unless he'd done something far worse.

Tre smirked and let the blaster slide out of his grip and clatter to the floor. "Who cares about my name?" he said clearly, "Not you. You'll probably just kill me afterwards". He had found from experience that the best way to annoy a Jedi was to insinuate they were murderers, and he intended to make full use of that fact. But first he'd have to get himself out of this situation. For anyone else that might prove quite a challenge, but for for Tre, a man who had spent his entire life pretending to be a multitude of other people, that wouldn't be a problem.

Step one: create a personality; something simple, complication would make it more unbelievable. A simple man pulled into this by Dooku's lies, that would do. Step two: a motive; to prove that he was a hero,someone the galaxy would be proud of. Fame was always a good motive. And finally step three: a name; Clay, that would work. It wasn't too different from his own name, which would make it that much easier to remember. All of this was calculated in his head in a fraction of a second.

"I'm a Jedi" she responded, "I don't kill. Now tell me your name or I might have to rethink my career choices"

It was an empty threat, but Tre knew that in order to get out of this situation with any semblance of a chance to escape he would have to play along.

"Okay" he said, letting defeat slide into his voice, "My name is Clay. Just don't kill me".

The Jedi smirked. Tre inwardly grinned, she was falling for it. With any luck he'd be put onto an easily escapeable prison shuttle. "Well then Clay" the Jedi said, "What are you doing here? Same deal as before, tell me or I may as well break the Jedi Code".

"I'm here to make the galaxy a better place, to help get rid of the evil Jedi." Tre responded, trying his best not to give the answer too soon. "Dooku was right, you are willing to kill anyone who gets in your way".

The Jedi looked at Tre for a few moments, as if processing what he had just said. She activated her comlink and spoke into it, "Change of plans troopers, we've got a prisoner".

It took a lot to stop Tre from smiling even the tiniest bit, the pan had gone off without a hitch. Perhaps in another life he would have made a good actor. He soon found himself surrounded by soldiers as the squad continued clearing the mostly empty hallways. From what Tre could gather, the main fight was going on outside,but many of the main officials were still in the complex. He couldn't tell what expressions the troopers had due to their helmets, but the Jedi glanced at him from time to time with an expression that could kill a Wookie.

The silence was incredibly awkward without much speaking apart from the occasional order from the Jedi to the squad. They were efficient, but the search itself was dull and pointless. Tre was not impressed by how long it was going to take to get him into a prisoner transport ship, but was willing to wait in order to have minimal security.

Unfortunately fate had other plans for Tre. The squad of Republic soldiers had the great misfortune of running into a large armed escort of the main officials who were fleeing the complex. Blaster bolts whizzed by his head as the droids all fired their blasters, aiming for Tre as well as the troopers and Jedi. Two soldiers went down immediately before the squad managed to duck into a couple different hallways.

Tre dodged a blaster bolt and landed facefirst next to two troopers who had their backs up against a wall. Tre peered around a corner and was immediately forced to duck back to avoid a barrage of blaster bolts.

"How good is your side now?" one of the soldiers asked him in a sarcastic tone, "As you can see they don't give a damn about you anymore".

Tre doubted that the droids gave a damn about him in the first place, but instead seized another opportunity to escape. "Can you pass me a blaster then?" he asked, raising his voice to be heard above the gunfire.

The trooper he was talking to chuckled, "No way, you're just gonna shoot me and return to your side". The other trooper peeked out from under cover and fired a few times before taking a bolt to the chest and falling over dead.

Before either of them could react, a fragmentation grenade bounced inside the hallway where the two men were taking cover. Tre quickly and instinctively threw it back and ducked to the side as the resounding explosion shook the hallways and scattered the Separatist forces. "How about that blaster now?" Tre asked and the trooper reluctantly handed over his fallen comrade's weapon. "Don't make me regret this" the trooper said simply.

"Fall back!" the Jedi ordered from where she stood and began pulling with her a soldier. The Republic troops fell back swiftly with Tre and the trooper he'dbeen talking to providing cover fire. Once out of the line of sight of the droids, the Jedi frantically led them down several halls and up two levels until they found a small abandoned war room in order to catch their breaths.

"Who gave him a blaster?" the Jedi demanded angrily, pointing at Tre.

"Uh, that was me" the trooper he'd sheltered with said nervously.

"And you thought that was a good idea, why?"

"Well you see, he threw back a grenade, which was probably the reason we were able to escape." the trooper responded, "And he did help cover our retreat..."

The Jedi turned to Tre and said in an authoritative tone, "Clay, give me one good reason why I should allow you to keep that blaster."

"They tried to kill me too." Tre said, seizing the moment, "And to think that I trusted them..."

The Jedi looked sympathetic for a second but soon turned back to the troopers, "Only five of you left, six with Clay, and Seven with me. Fuck."

"I know a way out of here" Tre offered, "It's easy enough and it could take us right to the main battle, though I can't guarantee where we'd be on the battlefield".

"Well general?" a trooper asked, "What's the plan?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Well general? What's your call?"

Ras'zira sighed and examined the man standing before her. Clay, as he seemed to call himself, was a human of average height and build, though his eyes suggested something of deeper malice hiding within the corners of his soul. Trusting him seemed like a bad idea. He could lead then into a trap or into an endless maze of corridors, but something about the way he spoke reflected that he wanted to get off of that dismal planet as much as her.

"Fuck it", she said out of annoyance more than anything, "We'll follow you, but if you try anything I _will_ kill you". She then turned to the trooper who had given this strange man a blaster, "And you, Trooper T4889. I expect you to watch him closely. Make sure he doesn't try to escape."

The soldier nodded before turning to look at Clay. "Now how about that way out?" he asked, making sure to poke his blaster into Clay's back.

"Right then, this way" Clay said, turning to the left and leading them down a narrow hallway, he seemed confident in his movements and soon the sounds of battle grew louder in the distance.

Ras'zira motioned to the troopers and followed the prisoner deeper into the compound. She looked around nervously as the walls, which had been originally been covered in metal, transitioned into a more natural, rocky lining. It wasn't long before Clay was leading them through the natural caverns and tunnels that the Geonosians had lived in for generations.

The air suddenly grew heavy and the humidity seemed to rise. Clay gulped and held up a hand.

"I think we may have taken a wrong turn..." the human said nervously. His face was a mask of sheer terror. "We should not be here..."

As if to emphasize his point, a scream rang through the tunnels.

"Come on!" Ras'zira shouted, "Our escape can wait, we need to save those soldiers!"

"This is a very bad idea" Clay interjected, "If they've gotten themselves into trouble, then they're probably dead. Trying to rescue them will only get us killed too."

"Shut up" T4889 said, shoving Clay forward. "Or I'll put a bullet in your brain." The trooper's threat was hollow and his voice carried a tone of fear. Clay's words had obviously spooked him.

Ras'zira pushed Clay's warning out of her head.

"It's our duty to help, no matter the risks." she stated. "Now come on, we have a job to do."

The squad set off quickly but warily, checking empty tunnels before continuing. More shouts rang out, guiding them through the endless maze of catacombs. But just as Ras'zira felt as if they were drawing close, the shouts stopped and dead silence filled the tunnels once more.

The troopers tensed up and clustered into a defensive position as sounds of quiet footsteps now filled the inky blackness. The trooper's helmet lights did little to penetrate the darkness. Clay seemed to be the only one calm enough to think clearly.

"We need to move" he silently mouthed to Ras'zira.

The Jedi nodded, her thoughts now on one simple goal: escape.

She motioned for the clones to follow her and set off into the darkness in a random direction. She closed her eyes and let her senses reach out into the darkness, creating in her mind a rough map of where they were.

"I found them!" she exclaimed, sensing the presence of clones ahead. "They're just down this branch!"

"I don't think..." Clay started to say, but the ground suddenly quivered as shells impacted the ground somewhere above them. Ras'zira was able to make eye contact with the man just before the roof collapsed between them and darkness took over her vision.

There was a searing pain in her head, but the Jedi forced herself to stand. Two other clones were shakily getting to their feet, and another was buried under a heavy pile of rocks. He didn't appear to be moving, and when Ras'zira approached she sensed that he was dead, the force had stopped moving through him. Clay was nowhere to be seen.

"Well general?" one of the troopers asked.

"We keep moving" Ras'zira responded, "We don't wan't to be caught in another cave-in."

"What about us?" came a muffled voice from the other side of the wall. It was T4889.

"Do you have a visual on Clay?" the Jedi demanded. She didn't want Clay escaping, he was too dangerous unguarded.

"I'm right here" Clay's voice came back from the other side, "But this one soldier isn't. He took a rock to the knee and it broke. His knee, not the rock."

"Just..." Ras'zira felt herself becoming flustered. There were too many variables in play here.

"Look, I'll tell you what" said Clay, "I'll get out of here with these two guys and you get out of here with yours. We'll meet up afterward."

"No. That's a bad idea." T4889 cut in, "He wants to separate us"

"What choice do we have?" Clay argued. Ras'zira didn't want to admit it, but he was right, even if he was under Dooku's dark influence.

"Go with Clay" she ordered, "And if he does anything, shoot him."

With that, she began walking off into the darkness without waiting for conformation from the clone. She could sense the other clones that they'd heard earlier ahead but the force flowed strangely around them. They were alive, at least for now.

Ras'zira motioned for the two clones following her to come forward, "Come on, they're just around the corner."

But as the group rounded the corner, Ras'zira could see that something was very wrong with the clones. Their weapons lay at their feet and they staggered back and forth with seemingly no purpose.

"Excuse me" one of Ras'zira's troopers said, stepping forward.

The strange clones' heads all snapped around to see the squad. They stared for a moment while Ras'zira began to slowly regret not trusting Clay. Suddenly one of the clones let out a strange noise and charged forward, tackling one of Ras'zira's clones to the rock floor, beating on him with his fists. The rest of the strange clones charged forward and Ras'zira ignited her lightsaber. She channeled the force within her and blasted the strange clone off of her squad mate with a blast of energy.

The strange clone hit the wall with a heavy thud and he appeared to be dead, but seconds later he had risen back up to continue the attack.

"Why won't they die?" asked one of her clones, pumping bolt after bolt into the chest of an attacking clone.

"Run!" shouted the other and began to flee.

"Hold your ground, soldier!" Ras'zira shouted, but it was too late, the clone had already disappeared into the darkness.

The Jedi gritted her teeth and attacked, slashing through the clones and sending the pieces of their mangled bodies tumbling to the ground, but it wasn't before long that the pieces began to tremble and reform.

As if in response, the ground began to tremble again. The artillery was back at it. Good news for the Republic. Bad news for Ras'zira and the remaining trooper.

"General!" the trooper shouted, "We must retreat!"

The Twi'lek nodded in response. "I'll clear the way, you follow."

She began slashing through the clones again until she had reached the other side of the former squad. But when she looked back, she saw the trooper convulsing on the ground, his limbs flailing until finally it came to a stop and he stood.

Ras'zira backed up slowly. Now she had no support, and no way to light her path through the caverns.

"This is not how I imagined dying..." she muttered and gripped her lightsaber tighter.

A hand suddenly gripped her shoulder and Ras'zira spun around quickly to confront Clay and T4889.

"I told you!" Clay yelled, "Now let's get the fuck out of here!"

The Jedi felt immense relief, she never thought she would be happy to see the human's face. "Lead the way!" she shouted, not bothering to hide her relief.

Clay led the way as the three started running, ducking into a side passage.

"This way should lead us out, but be warned, we may end up on the battlefield." T4889 advised, glancing over his shoulder.

"At this point I don't really care!" Ras'zira replied, "I just want to- Look out!"

The Jedi shoved Clay aside as a blaster bolt whizzed pat where Clay had just been standing. A patrol of battle droids, likely driven underground by the battle of the surface had found them and head opened fire.

Clay responded with a barrage of his own to cover T4889 as the clone ducked behind a large rock in the floor of the tunnel.

"I've got this" Ras'zira said to herself as she stepped into the fray, blaster bolts whizzing by her face as she ignited he lightsaber.

She moved forward in frenzy of green slashes, deflecting the droid's fire as she inched closer to them. A bolt caught her in the shoulder, but she pressed onward, channeling the power that flowed withing her to send a group of droids flying and to crush another who was too far away for her comfort. Eventually, with the help of Clay and T4889, the droids lay in pieces on the ground.

"Look" Clay said, pointing into a nearby tunnel, "Sunlight"

The trio emerged from the ground and raised their hands to block the sun from their eyes. They were behind Republic lines, the clones having taken this stretch of ground only minutes before they emerged from the surface.

Soon the group was escorted to the temporary Republic camp where Ras'zira reported the loss of her squad and the capture of their prisoner. Clay was to be detained and put on a shuttle to the nearest Republic prison, but as he was being cuffed and searched, Ras'zira noticed that the man was almost eager to get on the prison shuttle.

The Jedi pulled aside her former mentor, a male Twi'lek by the name of Cerduge.

"The prisoner seems to want to board the shuttle. I'm worried he has a plan of escape and possible unseen intentions." She explained, "I fear that he may be a danger to us all."

Her former mentor nodded his head. "I'll look into it. In the meantime, you should get some rest. We have a long flight tomorrow."

Ras'zira nodded and looked around for the barracks, but thoughts of the man who called himself Clay drifted through her head. There were still so many questions she still had about him. Who was he really? What exactly did he do for the Separatists? And how deep was his connection to Dooku? He was too eager to be captured, that was for sure, and the only thing that the Jedi could take away was the Clay wasn't what he said he was.


End file.
